PFRG: Chapter 97

In the guide to using the claw machine, if a power failure was considered a type of failure then Rule 2 was obviously contradictory to Rule 9. Now that Rule 2 had been proven to be correct, it naturally meant that Rule 9 was wrong.

Therefore, the best way to deal with it was to wait on the spot for over ten minutes. If the failure wasn’t resolved, they could consider going to the exit to restart the power.

The thing Wu Ruici regretted the most was that he didn’t remind his teammates the first time he realized this. It was because he didn’t expect for the rules to be triggered continuously that led to Ma Pian encountering such a thing.

He was feeling frustrated. Then he became stunned when he heard Chi Ting’s words.

He gradually realized that this was indeed a possibility and his expression turned ugly.

At this time, he just had to look up slightly to see the chandeliers hanging upside down from the top like iron claws.

From this angle, it really looked like the hook of a claw machine that had been magnified dozens of times.

It wasn’t just here. The entire claw machine area was filled with such chandeliers.

This sense of deja vu of something hanging overhead and possibly falling at any moment made everyone feel very uncomfortable in an instant.

Ma Pian was a player Wu Ruici had just recruited to the team three instances ago. His personal quality wasn’t very high, but he had a pretty good personal skill. He was a very rare existence in the Sanctuary where the top players had been basically divided up by the big teams.

According to the original plan, they just had to enter the appropriate instance, and their Blue Mountain team could use Ma Pian’s skill to earn some achievement points and move up the rankings.

Wu Ruici hadn’t expected to be so unlucky. Before Ma Pian’s skill had been put to good use, he ended up like this in the Strange Stories Arcade instance.

The friendship between teammates wasn’t too strong, but Wu Ruici still felt very uncomfortable when he looked at Ma Pian, who had been completely turned into a doll.

Not only did he feel reluctant, but more importantly, he felt regretful that the seedling he worked so hard to dig up was destroyed. After all, this meant that he would need to find new members to join in order to maintain the existence of the team.

However, there wasn’t a lot of time for Wu Ruici to digest so many complicated emotions.

As his eyes flickered violently, he could see that Ma Pian, who had completely lost his human form, actually stood up again in a shaky manner.

No, to be precise, he couldn’t be considered the original Ma Pian.

The monster in front of him had completely turned into a crudely made doll.

Due to the joints of his limbs being completely broken, he looked like a puppet hanging by an invisible force.

Ma Pian himself seemed to be unaware of this. He struggled towards Wu Ruici with a pained expression. His staggering posture made him look even more terrifying due to his weird posture. “It hurts… Captain, save me… It hurts so much…”

The face that was covered with linen showed wrinkles due to distortion. The large wooden buttons stained with sticky blood replaced his pupils. Every word uttered from his throat was hoarse. There was an obvious vibrato, and the changed pronunciation was particularly broken. “Hurry up! I can’t stay here any longer… Take me out. Captain, take me out quickly.”

He stumbled toward Wu Ruici. Before his raised hand could touch Wu Ruici, he was shrewdly avoided by the other party taking a step back.

“Captain?” There was a tremor in Ma Pian’s desperate tone. The amplified fear obviously made him on the verge of collapse. “Why? Captain, why are you avoiding me?”

He started to scream hysterically in an increasingly broken mood. “Aren’t you ready to save me? Save me, save me, save me, save me!”

He stared at Wu Ruici in a trance. Suddenly, his arms, which were lowered as if exhausted, were raised by an invisible force. He rushed toward Wu Ruici with a weird laugh. “Save me, save me, save me, save me! Since you don’t want to save me, then… stay here with me! Hehehehe, stay with me, stay with me, stay with me, hehehe! Stay, stay with me… stay with me…”

Such a change happened in an instant, but Wu Ruici didn’t even leave him a chance to touch it.

He was an old player, and his mind worked even faster. If what Chi Ting said about the ‘pink doll’ just now was correct, then in addition to Rule 6 in the user guide, there was Rule 10 which stated ‘Please take away all dolls caught during the game except for the pink dolls.’ Thus, he would never choose to take risks.

The pink dolls couldn’t be taken out of this area.

He didn’t want to become a monster like this due to breaking the rules.

Wu Ruici was well prepared. The moment the other party was about to touch his body, he suddenly moved his feet, and his figure disappeared on the spot.

He was already beside Yu Gui when he reappeared the next second. He pulled Yu Gui aside with force and said without hesitation, “Go and find the staff member. Quickly!”

The whole reaction process was extremely fast. By the time Ma Pian recovered and wanted to continue chasing, the two figures had disappeared from his sight again.

The sudden loss of his target made him stunned for a long time. It was only after a long time that he was drawn to the conversation that broke the silence.

He looked back and saw two people talking, obviously not paying attention to him at all.

“This Wu Ruici’s ability is… teleportation?” Yue Ren’s gaze was still fixed on the direction where the two members of the Blue Mountain team had disappeared. There was slight surprise in his expression. “If nothing else, it is very useful for escaping!”

“It seems so. He can also lead other people at the same time.” Chi Ting also sighed. “I just don’t know the maximum number of people he can lead.”

If this had happened in his time, it would’ve been an ability that many people envied.

Ma Pian: “……”

A distorted expression appeared on his stiff face again at being completely ignored like this.

Since he was originally a member of the Blue Mountain team, his first subconscious reaction made him focus on Wu Ruici. At this time, he noticed that there was someone else next to him. He immediately raised his hands in a very strange posture, grinning with the corners of his mouth stretched to the limit. Suddenly, he pounced again.

However, before he could get close, Chi Ting looked back slightly. He dodged sideways and swept the doll directly to the ground. He kicked the doll lightly before handing him to Ji Xingque in the rear. “Little Bird, keep an eye on him.”

“Got it!” The moment Ji Xingque responded, he pressed down hard with the giant cannon in his hand. It was just enough to press the kicked Ma Pian under the muzzle.

He looked at the disgusting shape of the doll and didn’t look surprised at all. He said politely, “I promise not to move if you don’t move, or I will just blast you with a few holes. The choice is yours. You can do it yourself.”

After a brief standoff, Ma Pian really didn’t move.

If his eyeballs hadn’t been replaced with large buttons, he would’ve probably wanted to close his eyes in despair.

Coincidentally, Ji Xingque’s threat completely hit the nail on the head. These dolls were afraid of fire.

Yue Ren saw the movement over here and laughed with an ambiguous meaning. “It is said that husband and wife are birds of the same forest. Is it the same for teammates? If disaster strikes, they fly away separately?”

He didn’t think there was anything wrong with what Wu Ruici did. After all, it was confirmed that Ma Pian had turned into a pink doll. Then according to Rule 10, it was understandable that he didn’t dare to take the person away from here.

But even though there wasn’t a problem, it still didn’t affect his taunting.

As he was sneering, Yue Ren heard the person next to him say, “I don’t know about others, but if I am Ma Pian and I encounter this situation, I would be very happy that my teammates could make such a decisive choice.”

Yue Ren turned around to look. “Should I praise you for your spirit of self-sacrifice, Captain Chi?”

“This isn’t called dedication. It is just recognizing reality.” Chi Ting didn’t avoid such gazes at all. He acted calmly as if he wasn’t disturbed by life or death. “There are always gatherings and separations in a person’s life. Once the day comes to separate, it is better to let the people around you survive than to drag them into hell. If we are destined to die, dying together is a choice that does no good to anyone.”

However, what he received in response was Yue Ren’s disapproving words. “That is just what you think. I don’t think so.”

Chi Ting vaguely guessed what this man was going to say and stared at him silently.

Sure enough, Yue Ren smiled. “If I can get out of the Love Apartment for the first time, I can get out of other instances the second time. So if you really become like this, I will definitely find a way to get you out of here as your teammate.”

He paused slightly after saying this. Then he continued casually, “Even if you really can’t get out, I won’t be so cold-blooded as to leave you alone. Things that hurt others and don’t benefit yourself are actually quite interesting. Rather than letting you choose a path that makes me unhappy, it is better to not let anyone have an easy life. Or maybe you will find that destroying this instance and letting everyone be buried with it is a more pleasant choice.”

Chi Ting stared at Yue Ren, who had a smiling face but a cold expression in his eyes. At this moment, he could clearly feel that every word this man said casually was actually serious.

He could really do this type of thing.

Something in Chi Ting’s heart was slightly touched.

After a few seconds of silence, he retracted his gaze and said, “I understand. I won’t put myself in such a dangerous environment, whether it is myself or for the safety of others.”

Yue Ren was obviously very satisfied with Chi Ting’s ability to grasp the key points. “It is worthy of being Captain Chi. Your awareness is high.”

Chi Ting always felt there was a bit of sarcasm in the words. He couldn’t help looking at him twice.

At this time, something flashed in the corner of his vision. It was Wu Ruici, who had returned. He was followed by a staff member wearing a doll uniform.

At this time, with the previous experience of Ma Pian being turned into a doll, it was inevitable that people here would have a very subtle feeling when looking at the pink doll uniform.

Chi Ting didn’t continue to think about it any further and retracted his gaze. “The Blue Mountain team has brought the staff member back. You guys should stay here to help deal with the follow-up. Once it is almost done, we can move to the next game.”

Ji Xingque kept his gun pointed at Ma Pian without relaxing. After noticing that Chi Ting was about to leave, he blurted out, “Captain, where are you going?”

Chi Ting replied, “I will try my luck 10 times too.”

He heard a chuckle from Yue Ren when he finished speaking. Yue Ren said, “It is so boring to go alone. I’ll go with you.”

Knowing that his thoughts had been seen through, Chi Ting continued to walk toward the row of claw machines without refusing.

In fact, it didn’t matter if he saw through it or not. It also didn’t matter if he admitted it directly. He really just wanted to play.

After all, the entertainment projects during the apocalypse had long become a thing of the past. This type of arcade in peacetime was really attractive. There was nothing wrong with enjoying a limited-time return experience package.

It was 10 minutes later when Chi Ting stopped.

Ma Pian had been taken away by the staff member. The scene was cleaned up and quiet, leaving only the faint smell of blood in the air that reminded everyone of what happened before.

Wu Ruici obviously didn’t stay in this sad place for long. After dealing with the problem, he asked Ji Xingque to convey his gratitude and left with his other team member.

Ji Xingque finally waited for Chi Ting to come back. He looked over and immediately noticed a few more dolls in Chi Ting’s arms. He was clearly stunned. “Captain, you grabbed all of these yourself?”

He walked over and looked at the denomination of the game coins. His tone was even more raised. “More than 10,000 coins? The captain is really talented!”

Chi Ting heard Yue Ren next to him clear his throat softly. This made Chi Ting smile softly, but he didn’t explain.

He said that he had to do it as a man, but someone still willingly used his shadows to poke at the right time and ‘assist’ the process of catching the doll.

Overall, the game experience with a very high failure rate had been qualitatively improved.

After all, the rules stated that external forces were prohibited from damaging the equipment. It didn’t state that cheating wasn’t allowed in the case of no damage.

If there were no obvious color restrictions then given the flexibility of Yue Ren’s shadows, which could move forward and backward in a controlled manner and could be long or short, it would only be a matter of time before the entire claw machine area was emptied.

But now, he could only pick a few dolls with a high game coin reward to barely satisfy himself.

“If this claw machine is so easy to catch, why not play it for a while?” Ji Xingque had already been discouraged by this game, but he became eager to try again after seeing Chi Ting’s rich harvest.

“I can’t play any longer,” Chi Ting answered. Once he met Ji Xingque’s puzzled gaze, he truthfully explained the situation he encountered. “Just after I put the coin in, there was a force trying to control my hand. It wasn’t very obvious, but this might not have stayed the case if I had continued playing.”

Ji Xingque was keenly aware of something. “This is Rule 8…”

Chi Ting nodded.

[Rule 8 of the Claw Machine User Guide: it is normal for the joystick to be out of control. It is because it might not be the joystick but your own hand that is out of control. If your hand is out of control for a long time, please leave this area as soon as possible for your own safety.]

There was currently no information to determine the correctness of this rule, but considering that it didn’t conflict with the other rules, it was an absolutely harmless choice to comply with it.

Moreover, they had already brought back one doll of each color. There was no room for further operation in the claw machine area.

Chi Ting was in a good mood as he glanced at the dolls in his arms. Then he looked toward the other brightly lit areas of the arcade and asked democratically, “What do you want to play next?”

Ji Xingque had long wanted to find a way to redeem himself. He pointed without hesitation and asked, “Can I try that?”

Looking in the direction he pointed, Chi Ting saw a striking sign not far away: Immersive Shooting Experience Hall.

The difficulty of this game was definitely not simple, but from the perspective of ‘shooting’, it could indeed be regarded as Ji Xingque’s absolute home court.

“Then let’s play that.” Chi Ting nodded and walked straight over there.

The moment the Dawn team walked out of the claw machine entrance, a virtual panel suddenly popped up and caused everyone to pause for a moment.

[Starry Sky Arcade’s Warm Tip:

The game coin prize pool in the claw machine area has changed. The Dawn team has received 18,000+ game coins. The remaining game coins in the prize pool are 20,000+.]

Everyone except for Chi Ting obviously saw this notification. They paused slightly and exchanged looks with each other.

It was just a simple notification, but this type of instance-wide notification that named and addressed everyone in the instance almost conveyed the current progress of obtaining game coins to everyone in the instance. This always gave people a subtle feeling.

It was like there was a conspiracy hidden in the darkness.

Yue Ren smiled coldly. “Sure enough, this is an instance designed by No 7. He is starting to play with people’s hearts again.”